Dasn't is derived from dare not. What happened to the R? Don't know. Where'd the S come from? Beats the hell out of me.
The opposite of grim is "hunky dorry."(sp.)
Everything is hunky dorry with me.
Charli,
I could grasp (oh, I like that word) UNTOWARD in written form, but it would take me a while to assemble it in oral use.
How about GRASP? EG. The members of the community could not GRASP his intent; to them, their sullen glare voiced their discontent.
Oops! There are two more words: SULLEN and GLARE. Mmmmmm...I love the written word.
I like "catholic," as in, "Generally speaking, the members of A2k have catholic tastes."
catholic - Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive
I often use untoward in real life! It is such a BITING word.
"Well, that was most untoward behaviour."
I like the word halcyon, a time of happiness and prosperity.
"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be
As halcyon brooding on a winter's sea."
Dryden.
I'd like to see "preposterous" make a comeback. One of the things I like most about it -- apart from the fact that it's so much fun to say -- is its derivation: it combines "pre" (the Latin for "before") with "posterus" (the Latin for "coming after") to produce a word that literally means "in the wrong order". I guess that makes it a more polite (because Latin-based words always sound more polite than Anglo-Saxon-based words) way of saying "ass-backwards".
Larry, thanks for the CATHOLIC word...I hadn't thought about that use...could be because of my two years working in a Catholic school.
I know I can hear these words using the internet dictionary; but I would love to hear your voices pronouncing the words, then using them in a sentence. I think it would have more of an emotional/reality based impact.
How about "rambunctious"? I used that today and people looked at me funny!
Persnickety:
Overparticular about trivial details; fastidious.
Snobbish; pretentious.
Requiring strict attention to detail; demanding: a persnickety job.
(Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.)
I just love this word. Not only for its meanings, but also for how it sounds.
Slightly off topic - words that aren't words but should be -
Mr. Jespah uses ramerpercussions, a combination of ramifications and repercussions.
I like disproportionate as a rejoinder when one feels hard done by
perspicacious - acutely insightful and wise - mentally acute or penetratingly discerning
I surprised myself by using the word todo. Did I say that? Yes, I did. "What was all the todo about?"
dlowan, I also like the word untoward. I say it every now and then. I also like the word doozy (an extraordinay one of its kind). "That dlowan, she's a doozy."
I've always been interested in a word that almost all have heard and seen, and think that they know the meaning of......but don't:
Hoi polloi
As in: "It was quite a show, all the hoi polloi had tickets and couldn't wait to get in".
Most people think that they are sure of what hoi polloi means.
Do you?
(no fair looking it up, first)
Kyn, Hoi Polloi is the opposite to what most people think.
Most people seem to use it in the sense of the elite, the advantaged, those that have rather than those that have not.
However the real meaning derives from the poll-men in Universities, that is, those who take their degrees without "honours." The proletariat. (Greek, meaning "the many," "the general.")
Deb, I like untoward as well
Roberta, The doozy is used time and time again in the film Groundhog day
Bill-nefarious great word
